« on: April 19, 2022, 07:01:03 pm »
Referee: Martin Atkinson.
Assistants: Constantine Hatzidakis, Richard West.
Fourth official: Chris Kavanagh.
VAR: Paul Tierney.
Assistant VAR: Harry Lennard.
No hype needed for this one, for many of us our biggest rivals and the game we want to win more than any other. Always has been for me, closely followed by our next opponents.
I don't know if it has to be this way, but it's rare for us both to be at the top at the same time - perhaps it's not possible for any period. As they've fallen away over the last decade we have gradually regained our "perch". Currently they cannot be considered direct rivals in terms of challenging us for honours, but this Tuesday they stand in the way of 3 important points in our league title challenge.
However, while they are clearly several levels below us in terms of ability they are still in the fight for fourth and will desperately want to show their fans more than they did when we humiliated them 5-0 at Old Trafford last October. Not to mention how much they'd love to do anything they can to derail our challenge. Whether they are able to, in my view, is very much down to us.
Yes they have some individual talents who can hurt us, but as a team they can't live with us if we're anywhere close to our best. I expect we'll be rotating again here as we played Saturday (as did they), and with our depth we should be able to do this better than them. Having looked at their line up from the 3-2 win at home to Norwich and the bench it appears they have very few options to rotate that would make them significantly stronger. Also they were missing Fred & McTominay, not sure whether either are due to return.
I'd imagine we'll see Matip return alongside Virgil and Henderson will likely start having been sub on Saturday. As for the rest who knows, Firmino and Jota could come in, as could Jones, who had a great game against them last time. It's also possible we could limit rotation here and rotate more against Everton, as Villarreal follows that. It's a tough one to try and guess, but as we know by now Jurgen and his staff will get it right.
There's not a lot else that needs saying really, we turn up at or near our best we should win. Our lads know what's at stake in terms of the bigger picture and I'm sure they won't let any hype around the fixture get in the way of what they are trying to achieve. While I don't expect another 5-0, it should really be a comfortable game for us as long as there's no complacency on show.
This'll be my first ever time watching us play these live, and I'm massively looking forward to it, hope those in the Upper Main Stand are bringing their voices as I can't wait to let Jurgen know how glad I am that he's a red.
« Last Edit: April 19, 2022, 09:45:27 pm by TepidT2O »
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